Clarity
by unebellecatastrophe
Summary: My name is Hermione Granger. Everyone believes I am a head librarian for the ministry, when really I am a highly trained field agent for the ministry of magic's conjoined department with Interpol. I spend half of my life spinning a lie. The other half I get to be myself; the downside is I only get to be that self with my partner Draco Malfoy.
1. Chapter 1

Clarity

"Hold still right before we crash cause we both know how this ends" –Zedd

Prologue:

Squaring off with Malfoy is nothing new, but the way he's looking at me is: like he wants to destroy me and fuck me at the same time. His gaze is a fire that burns me from the inside out. The closer he gets the harder it is to breathe. I know it's protocol—I know what's happening and it makes my mind want to come apart at the seams. My thoughts are becoming disjointed.

"Granger." His voice is rough as his lips push out my name. I've been gone, undercover for three months and held prisoner for two. Usually a female at HQ does this part of my assimilation back into the unit, but I am stuck in this cave on the edge of the world with Draco Malfoy. I know I am a suspect until he clears me. All these things I know but I can't control the racing of my heart. He snaps his fingers in front of me face.

"Are you going to wait all day? I'm not the least bit interested in seeing your body, Granger so get on with it." I've been Malfoy's partner for three years and I know everything about him, every tell of his body. Just now, he lied. When said he didn't want to see me, he rubbed the pads of his index and third finger over the pad of his thumb. He does this every single time he lies.

As long as we've been partners there's been a thick tension between us. One that looked a lot like hatred but the longer we were partners I began to know better. It's raw attraction. There have been lingering touches but not flirting in the sense that others would recognize it. It's the way we fight, words flying, and sometimes fists. But the way he makes me feel, looking at me like he's looking at me, I would do anything he asked me to. I watch his eyes darken, become black steel, and his barely visible pupils expand as he takes a step closer. The longer I put this off, the more suspicious I become. Our eyes lock.

"Take. Your. Clothes. Off," He commands.

I reach down and pull the hem of my faded grungy standard issue tee-shirt over my head.


	2. Combat Baby

Clarity

"No one here wants to fight me like you do" –Metric

Chapter One: Combat Baby

I was expected to do certain things, be a certain person post my graduation from Hogwarts. I was the quintessential bookworm who took an optional eighth year after the Second War while everyone I knew moved on with their lives, got jobs, got married, and started having families. So when I was accepted into a division of the ministry where I had to keep everything a secret, that's who I became. As far as everyone I know is concerned, I am the head librarian over the magical world's most prestigious collection, which resides of course in the ministry. I even wear fake black-framed spectacles.

I am a highly trained and skilled in code cracking, information extraction, fifteen languages, and interrogation technique. I completed my classroom training just a few days ago. I have been waiting two years for this day. I am standing in the middle of a blacked out room, blindfolded; it is my first day of training to become a field agent in the ministry's division of Interpol. There were two chosen from my class to go into the field. I was notified via private message, which was guarded by four men, and promptly turned to ash the minute I finished reading it. My first task is to determine the second person's identity in the next ten minutes. If I can't I'll be desked, immediately cut, spending the rest of my days in a cubicle. The second person I imagine is in another room doing the same thing.

I am told a series of disjointed facts with the words in rapid French and in a reverse ordered sentence. The last word is the first word and so on. They are not repeated. I am given something to smell and that's it. It hits me. The words align in my head around the smell of detergent, and something cool and smooth like ice and mint. My lips turn down.

"Draco Malfoy." I've done it in three minutes flat. I can see his pointed face and even sharper eyes. He must've been in the back of the class while I sat eagerly in the front. How could I have been so focused I never noticed his presence? There's no way I'm wrong, but I wish so much that I was. The blindfold is removed; my eyes blink overtime adjusting to a new level of light. I am in a small completely glass cube which is in a much larger room. There are bespectacled men assessing me, judging my performance. There are few females that have held this position. My mind processes rapidly; Malfoy will be my partner unless he fails. Be he won't. I know as morally insufficient as he is, he is as equally brilliant. A light switches on behind me and I see him in an identical glass cube across from mine. An imperceptible door opens and releases us both from our cubes.

The next test is set up quickly. We are to fight each other wandless in hand-to-hand combat. I was taught to fight during the war; all of the witches were. There are worst tortures that can be inflicted than unforgiveables. A noise sounds and he starts coming at me. He is quick but lacks the finesse I do. I am small and agile allowing for more precise movements. Before he can compute my actions, I have gotten him to the side of the head and struck him on his right side near his ribs. He clumsily catches the edge of my shoulder. I use the momentum on that side to spin and catch him in the back of his knees. He topples to the floor quickly. I drop to my knees in a second and pin him to the ground with my left one while gathering his arms tight behind his back. I continue to increase the pressure into his back until another tone sounds. I can tell in the set of his face that he wasn't expecting defeat. The tips of his ears are red in what I can only assume is embarrassment. I send a small, satisfied smile his way.

The third and final assessment has us working together. We are to fight together against a simulated attack. Our wands are returned to us and with another tone, the simulation begins. We are surprisingly in synch. Our minds cranking out the same plans of action. And yet, when it comes down to it, I have to give my life for his or we both die. I can't, so the simulation ends with our destruction. The lights come up and I find myself shaking from the adrenaline. The imagined attack felt a little too real. Did I fail? My heart races. A man steps into the field of view. He is rotund and of middle age with sparse amounts of medium brown hair to cover his egg-shaped head. My mind immediately assess him, the worn in skin around the base of his fourth finger means we was married = divorce or death of the spouse. He's got rough skin like he's spent too much time in the sun, and he walks as if it hurts to put too much pressure on his knees. My guess is muggle knee replacements and that he used to be a field agent before his body betrayed him.

"Granger, what's with the hesitation," he demands. I straighten my spine, and pull my self to my full height. "Emotions at play?" His expression is too close to a sneer. I stare at this man who underestimates my ability based on my sex.

"Unless you're a machine emotions are always at play. Regardless I don't exactly have amicable _feelings_ towards Malfoy, or he towards me. We don't have any training together as partners. How can I lie down my life for someone I can't trust," I respond, my voice commanding and firm.

"Why is this logic flawed Malfoy?" This disgusting man asks with a smirk on his face.

"Because if you're a part of a two man team then at least one needs to get back to base with Intel."

"Correct Malfoy. Remember that Granger." He marks something on a piece of paper. "You've both passed. Tomorrow physical training will commence. Be ready Granger." I want to beat him till he's bloody and bruised. I want to watch bones pierce his skin. I want to break him. Destroy him. Malfoy must be able to feel the animosity rolling off me because he lightly puts his hand around my wrist as if to keep me from acting. I glance at Malfoy, a little confused. I turn away from the testing arena and walk at a clipped pace towards the exit.

"Granger," Malfoy yells. I halt and whip around to face him.

"Yes," I say a bit snottily as I fold my arms across my chest.

"We both want this yes?" I nodded. "Then don't fuck it up by assaulting the boss."

"He's –"

"A prick. But Granger, Christ even he could tell you wanted tear him limb from limb."

"If he says one word about my menstrual cycle I will _not_ be responsible for my actions," I huff.

"I won't even try to hold you back," he laughs. It scares me. I've never seen him laugh in a way that wasn't genuinely evil and at the expense of someone else. Startled, I continue towards the locker room where I've stashed my robes. He grabs my arm.

"You were startled when you saw me, even though you determined my identity. Why?"

"I never saw you in the classroom. I never heard you answer a question or even make a comment."

"I saw you at the front everyday. I watched you answer every question. I think I knew that if I was competing with anyone in there it was you. Everyone else was a fucking idiot." I'd also thought the class was filled with a bunch of raging morons, none of who had fought in the war.

"I…thanks?" This time he let me go.

I take a quick shower, mumble a drying spell on my hair, and apparate back to the apartment I share with Ron. Before I search for him I adjust my black pencil skirt, push the wisps from my bun out of my face, make sure my glasses are on, and my blouse properly buttoned.

"Ronald I'm home," I call out. "I know I'm early but I thought we could go out for dinner?" I start taking out my pearl earrings leaving one in for effect. I hold the other one in my hand and turn the door to our bedroom. And there is Ron's pale freckled ass thrusting into something with blonde hair.

"What. The. Fuck." He turns to look at me, fear written on his face with a little bit of defiance. I am a little taken aback by the defiance bit. I am so angry that I pick up that ugly vase he bought me for Christmas last year and smash it on the bedroom floor. "Slut. Out. Now." I can't seem to form sentences. Lavender Brown scrambles out from under Ron throwing her clothes on. I can form a sentence then. "You've got to be kidding me." Without a word she apparates.

"Explain," I demand, the vein in my forehead pulsing.

"Hermione I'm sorry. I really am, but I need someone who excites me, who does spontaneous things. The first time I've ever heard you swear was five minutes ago. You only ever talk about the exhibits being shown in your collection at the library. I mean shit Hermione I'm catching criminals all day. You just don't understand. Also I think we've only ever had sex in the missionary position. I'm just…bored"

"Don't even start this with me. This is the way I've always been Ronald."

"God that's another thing. You only ever call me Ronald. You sound like my mum." I snap then.

"You want to shut your mouth right now before I shut it for you."

"Lavender understands what I need from a partner. She listens to me."

"LISTENS TO YOU? ALL I EVER DO IS LISTEN TO HOW AMAZING YOU THINK YOU ARE," I screech. He gets up then and starts to walk towards me. It's risky but I'm too furious to think straight. In exactly twenty seconds I have taken my elbow to his nose, broken it, stepped on his left foot, jammed my right knee into his groin, watched him fall to the ground, and kicked him in the stomach.

"Bloody hell," he groaned.

"Exciting enough for you RON? Get all your stuff out of my apartment by the time I get back. I need a fucking drink."

A/N I'd appreciate some feedback on this! I'm not sure whether I should continue. Thanks for taking the time to read it!


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